Lithuanian lake days – Trakai.

What a scorcher of a day! We certainly left Lithuania on a good note, infact we had one of our best days so far (not including Norway, Liam won’t have Norway bunched with other countries – he holds it in very high regard).

Woke up to blue skies at Vilnius City Camp so had high hopes for the day ahead, we got ready then drove to the historic city of Trakai about half an hour outside of Vilnius – so far the driving hasn’t been too lairy but we are yet to hit Poland…

The main reason we visited Trakai was to see the castle which is a magificent red stone castle overlooking the city from its home on an island in the middle of lake Galvė – used to be one of the centres of the grand duchy of Lithuania. We parked just outside of the city and paid 2€ for just under 3 hours parking then walked in, it’s a small place so we didn’t have far to go with I was grateful for considering i’d decided to wear jeans (no idea why) and the temperature was quickly creeping towards the 30 degree mark.

We didn’t pay to go into the castle itself but you can walk right around the outside by the lake and even have a little look into the courtyard without having to fork out for a ticket which was enough for us cheap types.

After having a little paddle in the lake we’d worked up an appetite and since we were in Trakai we just had to sample the local cuisine – Kibinai for lunch! Kibinai are traditional pastries from the area surrounding Trakai and are popular with the Karaite population – and Lucy & Liam! The closest thing I can compere them to would be a cornish pasty (they look nearly exactly the same) but so much better. We sampled a few different fillings, spinach & curd, minced beef and pork & cheese, 2 pastries each for €6.50, and ate them sat on a jetty overlooking the castle and lake, i’ve had lunch in worse places!

By now the time was nearly up on our parking ticket and we were planning to drive through to Poland but with the weather so nice we couldn’t just waste the day in the van! So instead we followed some locals in swimwear and found an amazing beach on the edge of a lake just outside of the city and spent a few hours topping up our tans (or lathering on the factor 30 in my case).

The beach was really busy with families and it was well set up for sunny days with volley ball courts, toilets and food kiosks – only wish we’d had a cold bottle of wine like the family next to us! Having a lake day was an amazing end to our time in the Baltics – just like being at home but hotter, and because the safe bit was marked off you don’t have to worry about mental undercurrents like in Ullswater, our usual watering hole.

so we had a great end to our time in the Baltics, we’ve actually really loved these countries, having come into them with no idea what to expect we’ve found them safe, friendly, varied and with a huge amount of history. The people here have come through some tough times but you can see that the places are starting to prosper and tourism is taking off here now – if you’re going, go now! Before they lose their ‘small town’ charm.